XNA To Add $2M In Parking Lots
by June 20, 2005 12:00 am 93 views
Three construction projects are planned for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill.
Scott Van Laningham, executive director of XNA, said two new parking lots with a total of 800 spaces will be built south of the terminal. The estimated costs for the two lots will be about $2 million. A 400-space parking lot recently completed at the airport cost $1 million.
“We need all the parking we can get right now,” Van Laningham said.
When completed, the new 800-space lots will bring the number of parking spaces at XNA to 2,800.
Parking is the single largest source of revenue for the airport, bringing in about $2.5 million of the airport’s $10 million budget in 2004.
Van Laningham said Garver Engineers of Little Rock is currently designing a parking deck for the airport. He said there are no figures on how much it will cost or how many cars it will hold.
Van Laningham said he hopes to have an estimate on the parking deck construction by the end of the year. He said the airport board is also considering valet parking and a shuttle service.
Other projects in the design stages include adding a separate back carousel for baggage claim. The cost for the addition will be about $3 million, Van Laningham said.
Design work has also been started on the expansion of ticket counters and security checkpoint areas. The additions for all three projects mean adding on to the existing terminal building. Costs for the ticket counter and security check points have yet to be discussed, he said.
Airport officials are waiting for environmental planners and engineers to revise the traffic count information before construction of an access road that will connect the airport with Interstate 540 can move forward.
The airport set a record in May with 52,941 enplanements, up 20.6 percent from May 2004 when there were 43,890 enplanements.
XNA offers service to 15 different destinations with 55 daily flights.